Reading Diary B: Persian Tales

Persian Tales

Story of The Wolf Bride: A man was lucky enough to have had a son. He went to get a horoscope for him and was told that is son would be torn to pieces by a wolf. To be safe, the mad built a chamber and kept his son in it. The man taught his son to read and write and when the son came of age he was to be wed. The man's brother had a daughter and they had chosen her for the son. The wedding celebration had lasted seven days and when it was over, the girl was taken to the chamber. She somehow turned to a wolf and tore the boy to pieces and changed back into a girl not knowing what happened. When a woman came the next morning, the girl explained that she didn't know what had happened. The boy's body was carried away to be buried. "Whatever is willed by fate, that verily comes to pass."

The Man Who Came To Wake His Luck: There were two brothers, one very rich and one poor. The poor brother went to his brother's herd and found a man herding the horses. It turned out to be his brother's luck. He told the brother that his luck was asleep and where to find it. On his way, he ran into a farmer, a King, and a wolf who also had no luck. When he found his luck, he passed along the messages from the people he met. When he returned to the King who was actually a woman, she asked him to marry her and to stay and have her riches. He refused. The farmer was to dig up a jar of coins for his field to yield fruit and he asked he brother to help him and share the coins but he refused. He went to the wolf and said that he was to eat the most foolish man. The wolf then asked the brother a silly question and fooled him. The wolf then ate him.

The Shepherd Who Found a Treasure: There were two shepherds who were watching a herd of sheep. One had fallen asleep and a green fly had flown out oh his nose and settled on the middle of three rocks. The first shepherd had known that the fly was actually other's soul and woken the other and said that he would give the wages of his sheep to him if he would tell him his dream. The other shepherd agreed and told him of a treasure hiding behind a rock but had no idea if he had gotten it or not because he was woken up. So the first shepherd went to town and got his wages and gave it to the other shepherd. The shepherd fell back asleep and the first shepherd looked under the rock and found jewels. He never worked as shepherd again.

(Green Fly, Source:UnTextbook)

Reading Diary A: Persian Tales

Persian Tales

The Wolf and The Goat: This story was very interesting. The wolf stole the goat's babies by tricking them into opening the door. One ran away and hid though, so when the mama goat came back home and saw that there was only one baby goat, she got mad and found the goat and challenged him to a fight. She filled a bag full of nice presents for a man to sharpen her horns. The wolf was too greedy and just blew the bag up to make it seem full and gave it to a dentist. The dentist peeked and saw that it was just air. But instead of sharpening the wolf's teeth, he pulled the teeth out and filled them with cotton twists that looked like sharp teeth. The mama goat easily beat the wolf in a challenge and ripped his stomach open with her sharp horn. The wolf died and she took her babies back home.

Susku and Mushu: A little beetle name Susku and a mouse named Mushu who got married. Sushi fell into a river and was saved by Mushu. A little while later, Mushu asked Susku to make her a pot of soup. When he left she started to make the soup and when the blind blew, it swept her up and dropped her in the soup. When Mushu came home he saw that his wife had drowned. He then poured the ash on top of his head. The crow then shook his feathers out then the tree shook his leaves out and so on. Others pitied Mushu and Susku and injured themselves too. This story was a little weird.

The Wolf Aunt: A man, his wife, and seven daughters were very poor. The man gathered thorns every day and sold them to provide for his family. One day on his way back, he ran into a woman who claimed to be his sister. She said that she was rich and would provide for his family. He ran home and brought his family to live with the newly discovered aunt. Soon, they were well fed and clothed nicely. The wife was so thankful that she decided to cook the aunt a nice liver dish. When the youngest daughter went to deliver the dish, she saw that the aunt was actually a wolf and was eating a man! She ran home and told her mother who tried telling her husband. The husband wouldn't believe his wife and the next morning woke up alone. He told the aunt about what had happened and she turned into a wolf and ate him. If he had listened to his wife, he wouldn't have died.

(Wolf, Source: UnTextbook)

Portfolio Index

The Affair of Mars and Venus
This story is about the Greek god finding out that his wife is having an affair.

The Beggar King
This story is about a nasty king being forced out of his palace in order to (hopefully) learn a lesson.

Scherahazade
This story is about a young girl who has a plan to try and get the king to stop executing women.

The Wolf Aunt
This story is about a man and his family finding a long lost relative with money. Is it too good to be true?

Extra Reading Diary: Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Creation: Ra is the divine father and strong ruler of the gods. He had created the first two gods, the god of wind and the god of rain, who became known as the The Twins. He then created Seb and Nut who became parents of Osiris. Ra created the earth and created beings and all the things in the water and on land. Ra became the king of mankind and went among them.

(Ra, Source: UnTextbook)

The Secret Name of Ra: The goddess Isis lived among men and grew tired tired of mankind. She longed for the power of Ra. To be equal, she would need to know the secret name of Ra. She took some of Ra's saliva and baked into the dart and created a venomous serpent. The Serpent bit Ra and Ra was dying because of the venom. He asked for all of his children to come and hear the name. Isis went with his children to see Ra. Ra eventually gave her the secret name and she withdrew the venom from his body.

Ra and Hathor: Ra was growing old and he had heard nasty rumors from his people. He summoned many people to come to his side. He was dying, so Nut took form of a celestial cow and Shu lifted Ra onto his back. They went into battle and slayed his enemies when they felt that he had left them.

Week 4 Storytelling: Scherahazade

Author's Note: In the original story, the Sultan was betrayed by his wife so he had her executed. She had an affair which made the sultan very untrusting of women. From then on, he married a girl in the evening and by the next morning, he had his new wife executed. This cycle repeated until he married Scherahazade who had a plan to tell him a long story in order to keep him from killing any more women. By the end of her story, the Sultan had fallen in love with Scherahazade and made her his queen. I wanted to retell Scherahazade because I think that if the Sultan was so intent on killing every girl that he married, I don't think that he would have constantly waited for a story to end for him to kill Sherahazade. I wanted to change it up because I didn't think that is how the sultan would have actually reacted. I also wanted to show what a father's love could do when he is protecting his children or others that he cares for. I chose this picture because it shows Scherahazade telling her sister, Dinarzade, and the Sultan stories.

(Scherahazade, Source:UnTextbook illustrated by H.J. Ford)

Scherahazade
In a kingdom far off, a sultan and his lovely wife lived together, ruling side by side. He loved her with all his might. He took every moment that he had and spoiled her with the most wonderful riches in the land. One day he found that she deceived him for the past several years. She was having an affair behind the sultan's back. He had no choice but to have the grand-vizir put her to death.

He was so overcome by the treacherousness of his wife that he believed that all women were vile. He believed that the fewer there were the better.

Every evening he married a new girl and the next morning he would have the grand-vizir strangle her. The cycle repeated and every morning the vizir "would see a girl married and a wife dead" the next day.

Everybody in the town was horrified and grieving. They were grieving for the daughters and sisters that were lost and they were horrified that someone in their family would be next. They were all afraid to see who the sultan would choose as his wife next.

The grand-vizir also had two daughters, Scherahazade and Dinarzade. Scherahazade was clever and her father loved her very much. She went to her father and begged him to let her be the next girl to marry the sultan. The vizir was furious with her even suggesting the idea; he knew that she would be killed.

Scherahazade pleaded with her father and told him that she wanted to end the Sultan's barbaric practice. He eventually agreed and hoped that it would work.

So the following day, the grand-vizir went to the Sultan and told him that he wished for the Sultan to have his own daughter as a wife. The sultan was stunned. "You do realize what will happen to her? Very well. If you cannot end her life tomorrow, then your life shall end too."

The vizier went back and told Scherahazade that the sultan had agreed. Scherahazade had called to her sister and said, "As a wedding gift, I will ask the sultan to allow me to have one last night with you. In the morning, you will wake and ask me to tell one of my stories for the last time."

That evening, Scherahazade was married to the Sultan. She begged him to allow her to say goodbye to her sister one last time and he sent for Dinarzade. An hour before dawn, Dinarzade did as she was told and woke her sister. Scherahazade told a wonderful story but stopped when it was time for the sultan to begin his day.

He asked her to continue, but she said "It is time for you to get ready. If allow me to live another night, I can finish the story." The sultan laughed. "I'm sorry but I cannot. I must marry a girl in the evening and have her killed in the morning. It was an entertaining story though."

So the sultan summoned the grand-vizir and commanded that Scherahazade be killed. The grand-vizir reluctantly did as he was told. "I'm sorry, my darling daughter. If only you had listened..."

Sadly, Scherahazade's plan did not work. The sultan was so overwhelmed from what his first wife had done that he could not allow for another one of his wives to live another day to (maybe) betray him.

The grand-vizir was so upset that he mourned for her all day. News spread that Scherahazade's plan had failed. Another bit of bad news had also spread. The sultan chose Dinarzade as his next wife.

The grand-vizir was furious. "How can the sultan take both of my daughters away from me?" he cried. He knew what he had to do to save his daughter.

Before the marriage, a feast was set up for the sultan and his future wife to enjoy. The grand-vizir snuck into the dining hall and poisoned the sultan's drink. Before Dinarzade was to meet the sultan for dinner, the grand-vizir stole his daughter away and ran.

The sultan had no idea that Dinarzade had left. He continued to dinner and sat down to wait for her. While waiting, he took a sip of his drink and died.

News spread that the sultan had died, but the grand-vizir and Dinarzade were long gone before the palace guards knew what had happened. But thanks to the grand-vizir, there weren't any more women being slaughtered.

Bibliography: Scherahazade from The Arabian Nights' Entertainment by Andrew Lang (1898).

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Aladdin 1: A tailor had a young son named Aladdin. The boy was lazy and did nothing and the father died of grief. One day a magician came up to Aladdin and told him that he was his long lost uncle and to tell his mother that he would be coming soon. The magician tricked both Aladdin and his mother and pretended to give Aladdin a skill to use. He took Aladdin out into the mountains and did some of his magic and produced a cave. He gave Aladdin a ring for good luck and told Aladdin to go in and bring back a lamp. Aladdin recieved the lamp but refused to give the magician the lamp until he was out of the cave. The magician was furious and sealed the cave and left Persia forever. Aladdin was in the cave by himself for two days. While praying, he accidentally rubbed the ring and a genie came out. 

Aladdin 3: After finding out that the Sultan had forgotten his promise to Aladdin to have him marry the princess, Aladdin had the genie take the groom and the Princess away from the palace every night and returned early in the morning. After a few days, the groom had asked to be separated from the Princess and Aladdin was given another chance to marry the Princess. The Sultan had asked for a huge task in order to insure that Aladdin was worthy enough to marry his daughter. Aladdin went above and beyond to prove to the Sultan with the help of his genie. He had the genie construct two palaces before he would marry the Princess. The vizir was sure that it was the work of magic.

Aladdin 5: The magician had used his magic and found out that Aladdin had not died in the cave but had escaped and married a princess and was living a wealthy life. He carried out a plan where he would beg people to switch their old lamps for brand new ones. While Aladdin was out hunting, the magician came by the palace and the Princess unknowingly gave the magic lamp to the magician. The magician made a wish and had the genie take him, the princess, and the palace to Africa. The Sultan was furious when he went to look out the window and saw that the palace was gone. He threatened to execute Aladdin if he did not bring the princess back within forty days. 

Giving the lamp away, Source:UnTextbook) 

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Scheherazade: I understand where the sultan is coming from not being able to trust women and thinking that they're all terrible because of what his wife did. But I don't think it was necessary for him to marry a girl every night and have her killed the next morning. And so did Scheherazade. She took it upon herself to come up with a plan to stop the sultan from killing more girls. She involved her sister and had her wake her an hour before dawn and ask for her to tell a story before she was to be killed.

The Merchant and the Genius: A merchant was sitting down and eating dates when an angry genie appeared and threatened to kill the merchant. The merchant had thrown away a date seed and hit the genie's son in the eye with a seed and had accidentally killed him. The genie gave the merchant a year to live and then he was to come back to the same spot and be killed. Scheherazade stops her story in order for her to live another day because the sultan is curious to hear the end, but she doesn't end her story.

The Husband and the Parrot: There is now a story being told in a story to the sultan. A husband brings home a parrot who knows how to talk and can tell what has happened in front of it. The parrot tells the husband that the wife has been bad and she has some of the slaves trick the parrot into seeing a "thunderstorm". When the husband returns from his trip and asks the parrot what has happened, the parrot says that he didn't see anything because of the storm. The husband knew that it hadn't rained so he took the parrot and threw him so hard that the parrot had died.

(Schererazade telling stories, Source: Female Fortitude)